


two falling sparks

by badskeletonpuns



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bounty Hunters, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Attempted Murder, Attempted Murder As Flirting, Canon-Typical Violence, M/M, Mutual Pining, Not A Slow Burn More Of A Medium Rare, Other, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:15:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 13,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28189830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badskeletonpuns/pseuds/badskeletonpuns
Summary: Starscream is very good at his job. So his job involves offlining a few innocent mechs who got in with the wrong crowd, so what? That's just the way things are. It's not like he's going to get assigned an awfully familiar shuttle as a target, or anything. And even if that were to happen, he absolutely would not fall in love with said shuttle all over again.Right?
Relationships: Jetfire | Skyfire/Starscream (Transformers), Skyfire/Starscream (Transformers)
Comments: 42
Kudos: 57
Collections: Skystar Secret Santa 2020





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> merry skystar, Maximum_Cyborgs/maxthecyborg! if you have an AO3, let me know and i'll gift this to you!

Really, this was all Skywarp’s fault. If the aft hadn’t gone and warped himself partway through a wall in an overcharged fit of idiocy,  _ he _ would be the one breaking into this slagging apartment while a light acid rain ruined his finish. 

But no, Skywarp had to get his leg reattached and Starscream was left to be the one assassinating some shuttle in  _ Iacon,  _ which was ridiculous by itself. Not that Starscream gave a scrap about what random grounders thought of him, but he couldn’t deny the atmosphere in the shining city was not exactly friendly towards anyone who looked “Decepticon.” For his part, as long as he was getting paid, the insignia on the armor of his client or his mark meant nothing to him. 

The steam from his auxiliary vents blended with the smog of the Iacon morning. It was cold and damp and miserable, and Skywarp owed Starscream for this, big time. 

Under the ministrations of Starscream’s claws, the lock—a  _ physical _ lock, how cheap was this poor fool’s landlord?—finally clicked open. Silent as the deep space vacuum, Starscream slipped into the apartment, closing the door behind him. 

The outer habsuite was just as expected: cheap vinyl flooring, junky energon dispenser paired with minimal counter space, a sagging couch. Judging from the dents in the ceiling and in the narrow hallway Starscream presumed led to the berth room, it was also made for a mech half its inhabitant’s size. 

Well, he wouldn’t have to live here for too much longer. 

The energon dispenser would be the easiest way to offline him. Starscream unlatched his cockpit, pulling a small bottle out of a hidden hatch within it. Certain poisons were unwise to keep in one’s subspace. 

As he walked up to the energon dispenser, a soft glow from the other room caught Starscream’s optic. There were a series of cheap holo screens hooked up to a clunky generator by the wall. Illuminated on their screens were a series of plans and projects. Different scientific experiments, ranging from ways to study Cybertron’s native wildlife to chemical formulas. It was a scientist’s wonderland, and surely Starscream had time to take just a quick scan of the details they held.

Specifically, he was drawn to a holoscreen containing a formula that obviously wasn’t finished. The mech who lived here must have been working on it last night, because the precise font of the base screen was marred with interjections in red and crossed-out sections. 

At one point he’d drawn an upset text emoticon by what looked like a particularly tricky sequence of steps that should, if completed, ensure dissolution of a nasty chemical into a far more stable formula. Unbidden, and much to his dismay, Starscream’s spark twinged a little at the sad face. It reminded him of Skywarp.

Speaking of Skywarp, Starscream should get to finishing his trinemate’s job.

Although he had plenty of time, he was sure, and there was a much better way to organize these steps if he just took a few breems to sort them. And if they were to add magnesium instead of cybersulfate here, then that would take one more unstable element out of the project.

Starscream was just putting the finishing touches on the last equation necessary to take the hypothetical chemical solution from ‘explosive (bad)’ to ‘explosive (controllable)’ when he picked up heavy footsteps outside of the apartment. Probably another mech returning home; apparently his target liked to work late hours and was unlikely to be back until later. Just one more notation—

A key clicked into the lock, and it was all Starscream could do to drop the stylus and fold himself into the tiny space behind one of the holoscreen generators and the wall. All the mech had to do was look behind it, and Starscream would be hard-pressed to explain his presence. It didn’t help that the poison intended for the energon dispenser still sat in his hatch, too. He’d let time get away from a little, but the science at work in the mech’s notes had just been so fascinating. Perhaps he was just returning home to grab a datapad or something else he’d forgotten, and he’d leave just as suddenly as he’d arrived.

“No, I know you were expecting the project yesterday, professor, sir, I’m just—I had another—no, yes, I promise the academy is my first priority.” The mech let himself into his apartment while speaking on what must have been his internal comms system. From his hiding place, Starscream could just make out legs that went up and up, and a flash of red and white wing that had him craning his neck hydraulics as far out as possible to get a better view.

Primus, he was a space shuttle. Here in Iacon, flight frames tended to be slender Concordes or friendly propellor planes. Those with supersonic or space-flight capable alt modes resided more in Vos and the smaller seeker cities that surrounded it.

What was a shuttle doing here? At the academy, he’d said? He couldn’t mean—

“I remember, professor,” the mech continued. “You took me on as a project. You’re doing your best to help me, so it’s my duty to prove myself as well. The Iacon Science Academy expects the best from all its students, and so I need to do better than my best.” He sat on the couch, and for the first time Starscream caught a glimpse of his face.

He looked... familiar. Something about the pale metal and the angles of his jaw struts reminded Starscream of someone. He couldn’t quite recall the name, and besides, the chances that this was the same shuttle were astronomically low.

“Yes, I’ll have my results to you first thing tomorrow morning,” he promised, and a soft click meant his professor must have hung up.

The shuttle—the  _ target _ —buried his face in his hands and sighed, a heavy ex-vent. Starscream knew the feeling. Not that he’d ever been allowed near enough to the academy to be in the same position as this poor fool. Not that that mattered, because Starscream was perfectly happy with his current career and this mech wouldn’t be alive tomorrow to face his professor, with or without results.

As soon as Starscream could get that poison into his energon without him noticing.

“What are you going to do, Skyfire?” the target muttered, muffled by his hands. “Everyone else teamed up to get this done, but oh no, no one wanted to team up with the space shuttle, he’ll only hold us back!” His wings sagged low, barely visible behind the width of his shoulders. Which were, not that Starscream was noticing, some nice shoulders.

Lots of shuttles were named Skyfire. It was as ubiquitous as a seeker having ‘storm’ in their name.

Skyfire stood, and Starscream was once again reminded of how massive he was, and how this apartment was clearly not designed for a mech his size class. He must have been constantly bashing his helm on the ceiling. And any flight, even in root mode, would be impossible in such a small space.

A tiny, idiotic part of Starscream’s processor core began generating lines of thought code. Hypotheticals, all of them, focused on spiriting this Skyfire away to the eyrie Starscream shared with his trinemates back in Vos. Massive windows, vaulted ceilings... Plenty of space for three jets and a shuttle. He closed off the threads immediately, forbidding any further ideas on the subject.

Some rich neutral had paid handsomely for this shuttle to offline, permanently, and Starscream was going to get the job done.

In a breem.

While Starscream had been frantically closing his sentimental programming, Skyfire had walked over to the holoscreens. Starscream held himself absolutely still; he shut down every venting protocol and dampened every bit of feedback from his flight sensors that he could. A wing twitch or a loud ex-vent could give the game away. Not that Starscream’s efforts would matter if Skyfire took two steps to the left and turned his head.

“Hold on, is this... solved?”

All Starscream could see of Skyfire were his pedes, but he must have been looking at the notes Starscream had jotted down on the screen. Perhaps he should have waited to look over the holoscreens until after he’d poisoned Skyfire.

“Did I do this? I would have thought I would have remembered... but I was really tired last night.” Skyfire reached down to pick up the stylus Starscream had dropped, and Starscream held back a wince. There was a moment when their optics could have met, but Skyfire’s gaze remained focused entirely on his formulae. “This looks right, maybe if I just—”

How dare he change Starscream’s work! Those steps were perfect, and he knew it.

Skyfire continued going over the notes Starscream had made, talking himself through projected results and the formulae he needed for the project his professor had been demanding. And fine, it was  _ possible  _ Skyfire made a few helpful edits. Magnesium was still more dangerous than was really needed for the desired end result here, and a few pieces of beryl from any crystal garden would be cheaper and more stable.

Still. Starscream was the one who had made the jump that the element needed to be changed in the first place.

Cybertron’s first moon rose, and then the second, and still Skyfire worked. Even as uncomfortable as his position behind the holo-generator was, Starscream had to resort to pinching his neck cables to stop from falling into recharge.

The first moon had set by the time Skyfire set his stylus down and collapsed onto his couch. Starscream could just make out him giving a forlorn glance at his energon dispenser, before shaking his head and sighing. “I’ll just pick something up on the way to work tomorrow...”

Primus dammit, poisoning his energon wouldn’t take effect soon enough. Starscream would have to resort to messier methods.

But that would have to wait till tomorrow. As soon as Skyfire fell asleep, Starscream was sneaking out and crashing in the cheap motel room Thundercracker had set up for him in case the job took longer than planned.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Denial is just a river in Cyber-Egypt and Starscream is paddling there full-time.

Last night had been a mistake.

Even Starscream, in all his skill, made mistakes on occasion. It wouldn’t happen again. He perched outside the tiny balcony to the apartment. Exhaust streaks spoke to previous inhabitants using it as a launchpad, despite the clearly posted signage advising flight frames to take off from the designated rooftop area only.

He had no doubt Skyfire would be the same. All he had to do was wait until Skyfire got a few hundred metrons into the air, take out a thruster with a subtle null ray shot, and the shuttle would topple to the ground. It would be dismissed as a flight accident—after all, he’d clearly taken off from an unstable surface—and no one would be the wiser.

Iaconite police were unlikely to spend too much time looking into the deaths of seekers and shuttles.

The outer door slid open, jarring on a bent rod in its guide slot.

Skyfire ducked through, and... Starscream hadn’t seen the shuttle in Cybertron’s sunlight before. It was one thing to see his strong frame in the flickering light of weak incandescents, and another entirely to watch sunbeams slide across his white armor. He was, to put it simply, lovely. Starscream would admit a weakness for larger mechs, but most of the ones he’d met had been clunky ground-pounders. None had half the presence of this transporter as he stretched, flaring his winglets to absorb as much of the morning sun as he could. Again, Starscream was reminded of another shuttle he once knew, but... this couldn’t be him. There were hundreds of identical seekers, there had to be at least as many shuttles.

And he was  _ humming. _

It was so sweet Starscream had half a mind to shoot him right then, waiting for takeoff be damned.

But no, he wasn’t that unprofessional. It would take more than a handsome voice and a sweet smile to sway him, no matter how familiar they were.

Leaning against the railing of his balcony space, Skyfire let his optics shut off.

Starscream could not believe this mech. How had no one else already assassinated him? This was a terrible neighborhood, that much was obvious. Robbing yourself of one of your senses was one thing, and the leaning on the railing was another. There was no way that slag had been replaced since it had been built—which looked to have been before the Matrix itself had been forged. It had to be half-rusted by now.

In his internal rant, Starscream almost missed seeing Skyfire go inside his apartment once more.

Oh, Primus, he was actually going to obey the warnings about takeoff locations, wasn’t he?

Well, it was unlikely other mechs would be up this early in the day, so Skyfire should still be perfectly vulnerable to Starscream’s shot up on the roof. Luckily, Starscream could take off quietly in his root mode to get there before Skyfire and find the perfect vantage point. His alt mode would have been faster, of course, but he was only flying up a short distance and the sound involved in his jet engines was not ideal for a subtle kill.

The stained metal and teflon of the complex flew by, and it was in the flicker of an optic Starscream made it to the rooftop and settled into a hiding spot behind a truly ugly ‘art’ installation. The takeoff and landing areas were dusty, oil-streaked. It looked like there were few fliers in this part of Iacon, and even fewer who bothered following the barely-enforced flight rules in this district.

There was at least one, of course. The door creaked open to admit Skyfire, still humming to himself.

The shuttle gathered his fuselage about himself, every part of his frame prepared to take to the sky. His engines thrummed, a deep rumble that vibrated across the floor and up into Starscream’s thrusterpedes, and he couldn’t help but engage in a half-breem daydream about getting that vibration pressed against a more sensitive area of his armor.

He could indulge himself later.

Skyfire crouched, and then he was airborne. There was a moment of silence when he hung in the air, still as a painting, and then his turbines really kicked in and he was hundreds of mechanometers above. Starscream hadn’t expected that speed from him, nor the easy grace with which he now transformed. Without a second thought to the assassin below who was finding himself frozen, unable to look away, Skyfire took off to his workplace.

And Starscream hadn’t shot him.

Scrap. Skywarp was never going to let him live this down.

* * *

Starscream was not going back to Vos until the job was done. He wasn’t exactly a fan of the messier jobs, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t willing to do whatever it took to complete his assignment. 

Even if his assignment was a pretty, smart shuttle who hummed in the mornings and flew like he was born to do it. 

He couldn’t fly now, though. Iacon had a flight curfew at night—well, technically they had a noise limit, but there were few flight frames whose engines were quiet enough to still go for a nighttime flight. Skyfire had a tendency to work late, and often ended up walking home through less savoury areas of the city. Starscream would be more than able to make taking him out look like a mugging gone wrong. 

After following Skyfire for a few blocks, Starscream’s opportunity came when he cut through an alleyway between two skyscrapers. There were few other mechs on the street at this hour, and Starscream had no doubt that they were deeply involved in minding their own business. 

Skyfire had biolights on his wingtips, which was not adorable and Starscream was not having any second thoughts. At the moment, the shuttle was using said biolights to navigate the narrow (for him, at least) alley. The light illuminated about a mechanometer around Skyfire, so all Starscream had to do was sneak up to the edge of it. From there, it would be the work of a breem to dart in and cut a main fuel line or several, leaving Skyfire— _ the target, _ Starscream reminded himself again—to bleed out. 

It was easy. 

Simple.

Starscream just had to sneak a little closer. 

“Stop!” someone shouted, and Starscream halted. For a klik his processor froze, certain he’d been discovered. But that didn’t make sense, he was still firmly wrapped in shadow and no mech knew of this plot save for his trine and their client. 

Another bot stumbled out of the darkness, gesturing with a gun that looked like it had been ripped from someone else’s armor. “I said stop!” They moved with a lopsided sort of roll, heavy armor on their shoulders offsetting their center of balance. Sometimes frame upgrades didn’t take too well to a base protoform. “Turn out your subspace.” 

Oh, great, now Starscream was going to have to deal with an  _ actual _ mugging. Skyfire hesitated and the stranger aimed their gun at his spark chamber. “Don’t make me use this.” 

_ Like you even know how, _ Starscream scoffed to himself. He skirted around Skyfire’s bulk, poised to strike at the mugger—if only to get them out of the way. Besides, even if this mech posed a coherent danger, Skyfire deserved better than to die in such a stupid way. He deserved the elegance of Starscream’s skills. 

So when he heard the safety on the mech’s gun click off, it was almost reflex to pounce on them from behind, pulling the gun up and away from himself and Skyfire.

Not that that mattered. 

The bot didn’t have enough time to get off a single shot before Starscream pinned their main fuel line between two claws, cutting off vital circulation just long enough to force them to power down. 

It was cleaner than killing them. Starscream wasn’t worried about Skyfire seeing him kill another Cybertronian in front of him or anything. 

Speaking of Skyfire… Starscream looked up, only to find the shuttle looking right back at him. Their optics met, crimson and blue. Once again, Starscream was struck by the similarity of this shuttle to one he’d known before, but he  _ knew _ that was impossible, he—

“Starscream?” said Skyfire, his voice cracking into static partway through. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> let me know if you enjoyed it! all comments/kudos are appreciated <3


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GOD i love this chapter, i hope you all love it too!!!

Following Skyfire back to his apartment (this time only a few metrons away, close enough to see every bit of Skyfire’s stupidly charming smile when he directed it at Starscream, which was ridiculously often) happened in a blur. One moment Skyfire was profusely thanking Starscream for saving his life, which he  _ hadn’t,  _ he was just… making things easier for himself. The next he was inviting Starscream back to his apartment for a drink, saying it was the least he could do. 

And for some reason, Starscream had accepted. 

He could finish the job in Skyfire’s apartment just as easily as he could out on the streets. Maybe he could finally poison him. A few drops in both cubes, fake drinking his own, letting Skyfire’s trusting nature get the better of him, easy as energon treats. 

Whatever past they’d had was behind them. Knowing that this  _ was _ the same shuttle he’d stayed up all night studying with, the same one who’d gotten them to the practice test on time but then forgotten the route to fly home, the same one with whom he’d flown through a nebula for the first time—that meant nothing. It was all memories. Dead and gone, just as Starscream was being paid good credits to make Skyfire. 

The shuttle let the both of them into his apartment.

“You should get a new lock, physical ones don’t do scrap,” Starscream volunteered despite himself. 

Skyfire glanced at him, bemused. “When did you learn about lock security?” 

Starscream scoffed. “Have you met my trine? Breaking and entering is a necessity to keep up with Skywarp.” He leaned against a wall, too nervous—not  _ nervous,  _ just rightfully unsettled by having returned by choice to the place where he’d tried to offline the owner the night before—to sit on Skyfire’s couch. 

“No, I… I don’t think I ever did meet them.” Skyfire wasn’t looking at Starscream as he prepared a cube for each of them, but Starscream could read the uncertainty in the twitch of his wings easily. He probably hadn’t been around other flight frames in quartexes and had likely forgotten how much of a giveaway wings could be to other mechs who had them. 

“I—Right.” Starscream couldn’t invite Skyfire to visit them. That would be foolish. Even more foolish than saving Skyfire from being robbed, or going back to his apartment, or accepting the cube he was now being handed. 

It had halite flecks suspended in it that Skyfire must have added. Starscream had always loved halite. 

“So,” Skyfire said, settling onto his couch. “What brings you to Iacon? I haven’t seen you since… you know.” 

_ Since neither of us were accepted into the academy, which doesn’t explain why  _ you’re _ here now, either. _

“Oh, this and that,” Starscream muttered. “I had a business opportunity come up, nothing anyone wants to hear about.” The best lie was to not lie at all. 

“It’s nice to see you now,” Skyfire offered. “You can sit down if you’d like, I’d…” His wings twitched again, and he glanced away. Primus, had his optics always been that blue? “I wouldn’t mind spending some time together. Remember those science fictions holos we used to watch together? I have a new one; it just came out last season.” 

Starscream shouldn’t say yes. He should have poisoned their cubes. Should have stabbed Skyfire in the alleyway. Should give up and go home and let Thundercracker kill Skyfire, and live with the teasing for the rest of his life. 

“That would be nice,” he admitted instead of doing anything his logic unit was suggesting. 

At Skyfire’s responding grin, Starscream’s spark pulsed. 

He’d just finish this one drink, they’d get through the first few breems of the movie, and then Starscream would make his excuses and leave. Once he was free of the inordinate influence Skyfire’s sad smile had on his motivators, he’d able to regroup and continue his assassination efforts.

By the time Starscream had realized that was decidedly not what he had done, they were halfway through the vid and a bowl of hammerscale chips Skyfire had gotten them once they’d finished their initial cubes. At some point Starscream had sat on the couch next to Skyfire, and when it had ominously sagged under the weight of their frames they’d looked at each other and burst into laughter. 

The film was ridiculous, of course, as all the prior installments had been. Starscream had never seen something so obviously un-researched. Back when they were taking breaks from studying, they used to watch these films to pick them to pieces. They’d played drinking games until they were too overcharged to do anything except point and laugh at the ‘scientists’ in the vids. 

They had promised each other they would be better scientists by far. 

Starscream was pulled from his reminiscing by Skyfire, shoving at his shoulder and laughing. “Did you see that? The hull of their ship is made of  _ unobtanium,  _ because it can convert the pressures of the core into energy to power the ship!” 

“What? No, I don’t believe you, no one would actually write that.” Starscream returned his attention to the screen, where several scientists were arguing about the non-existent logistics of their ‘unobtanium’ ship. 

Slipping back into a rhythm with Skyfire was almost terrifyingly easy. Starscream laughed a little louder than he’d meant to and Skyfire didn’t give him that disapproving  _ look _ that so many others had, he just laughed with him. And when Skyfire smiled at him over a terrible joke, Starscream smiled back. 

It was nice. 

Onscreen, the vessel had reached the core of their planet, which was apparently supposed to be molten but wasn’t. Starscream let himself, just for a klik, lean into Skyfire’s side and close his optic lenses. 

His systems came back online with a jolt as the vid’s ending credits scrolling down the holoscreen. Starscream was tucked under Skyfire’s arm, which was a comforting warmth along his shoulders and the tops of his wings. Skyfire, from the sound of his soft vents, was still in stasis. 

If he was smart, Starscream would kill Skyfire now. 

Starscream tipped his head back, looking up at what he could see of Skyfire’s face—mainly just his jaw struts and the vulnerable underside of his throat. 

The trust that he still had in Starscream, after all this time… 

He shouldn’t have that trust. Starscream carefully extricated himself from Skyfire until he stood in front of the shuttle, who remained asleep on the couch.

Now or never. 

Starscream flexed the servomechanisms of his wrist, extending his already sharp claws until they arced wickedly from the tips of his fingers. It would be easy. 

Just a simple slash across the main fuel lines of his throat, and Starscream could leave all this behind. He’d never have to see those pretty blue optics again, or deal with the way his code dissolved into keysmashes when Skyfire touched him, even after all this time. He wouldn’t need to catch up with how Skyfire was doing and definitely wouldn’t be curious about how Skyfire had ended up in the Academy anyway. 

Pale holo-screen light flickered across Skyfire’s frame, save for where it was shadowed by Starscream standing over him. Starscream couldn’t stop looking at him, cataloguing every flick of his wings or sleepy mumble. 

He was a professional. He’d killed mechs before. He could do this. 

It would be easy.

Starscream drew back his hand, tensed to strike. 

He lashed out and slashed across the silicon cushion to the left of Skyfire’s helm, leaving long gashes through the fabric. In a silent snarl, he bared silver fangs. His systems were working overtime, logic units struggling to process the fact that he’d  _ missed _ a sleeping mech two feet from his face but he hadn’t missed Skyfire on purpose, of course, that would be unthinkable. 

That would mean he couldn’t kill him. 

That would mean he  _ cared. _

Starscream balled his hands into fists, drawing them so tight he felt his claws scrape and sting against his palms. He couldn’t hold back a hiss—or maybe that was just the tension in his hydraulics, struggling to keep him steady. 

With one last look at Skyfire, slowly sliding to lay on his side, Starscream turned and stalked towards the outer door. 

He had to get out of here; he couldn’t ever come back. There was new history here now. The door handle was cold against his palm and he was a mere klik from opening it and vanishing into the night when he paused. 

Maybe he could make it work. If he just never went back to Vos, if he and Skyfire fled to a backwater planet no one had ever heard of, if they took on the world and won. Another hundred impossible ifs ran through his processor in a klik, and he shook them off and pulled the door open. This was the way things had to be.

Starscream was poised to take off on Skyfire’s balcony when the urge to look back overcame him. He glanced back into Skyfire’s apartment and allowed himself a single breem to imagine one more impossible future. 

_ They’d both gotten into the academy, graduated with honors and respected for their achievements. Flight frame or no, they would be taken seriously as scientists.  _

_ And at the end of the day, they would get to come home to each other.  _

Starscream’s spark flared with an almost painful warmth, and he pressed a hand over his cockpit. It was no hotter than usual, the warmth in his spark nothing more than an emotional reaction. 

He let out a long sigh, opening every vent to dispel even the imagined heat. 

It was long past time for him to go. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the movie in this chapter is indeed a real earth movie, i have never seen it but it's called The Core and is just as bad as it sounds. hammerscale, the snack they eat, is iron flakes/spheres that are on earth a byproduct of forging iron, but sounded like the sort of popcorn-adjacent snack robots would eat to me!   
> let me know if you had any favorite lines/sections!! mine is the bit when starscream, still planning on killing skyfire, can't help himself but tell skyfire he should improve his home security :,) what a doof i love him


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Starscream goes back to Vos. He doesn't think about Skyfire at _all._

“I mean, he’s gotta get off the couch eventually, right? Maybe we just let him keep lying there for a while longer!” 

“This isn’t like him. Skywarp, you know how he gets when he’s blue-screened about something, nothing actually _stops,_ he just does a lot of nothing very quickly. Lying still is different.” 

The mech in question slumped lower on the sofa, unwilling to put forth the effort required to snarl at his trinemates that he _could hear them,_ thank you very much, and did not appreciate any of their insinuations. If he wanted to get up, he’d get up! Everyone should be entitled to a certain amount of… self-reflection should they so desire. 

And also a bowl of fiberglass fluff to snack on. And trashy holovid series to catch up with. 

Everyone should be entitled to those things, but specifically Starscream should be entitled to those things. 

He huffed out air from his vents in a decidedly not petulant manner, pretending he couldn’t hear his trinemates continuing to muse about the amount of time he’d been, as they put it, ‘moping’ on their couch. 

“And he still won’t tell me if he actually killed that bot! This slagging client is really on my tailfins about it.” 

_Skyfire. The bot’s name is Skyfire._

Starscream didn’t say anything. Thundercracker and Skywarp were quiet for a klik, and then—

“Do you think he knows that he fell into recharge on some of the fluff last night and it’s stuck to his wings? 

Starscream couldn’t stop an automatic shudder of his wings at the thought. His traitorous trinemates snickered. Defeated, he sat up and scowled at them. “Whatever happened to common courtesy?” 

Skywarp teleported the approximately five metrons to the couch, falling onto it with enough drama to force Starscream to twist and flex his frame to avoid falling off himself. “Starscream,” he said, as serious as he ever was. “Star. You have not left our eyrie in three days. I say this as someone who loves you very deeply: get the frag out.” 

“It’s my eyrie too!” Starscream protested. “I don’t know what you’re so upset about!” 

With less force but just as much drama as Skywarp, Thundercracker put a hand on Starscream’s shoulder. Starscream tipped his helm back till their optics met; his face was still and solemn. “Starscream… did something happen on that last job? You know we can help, right? That’s what trine is for.” 

Nothing happened. That was the problem. No death, no reward, and definitely no stupid, messy feelings. 

Starscream shook Thundercracker off, staring across the room in an effort to not look either of his trinemates in the optics. “It was _fine,_ Iacon is just… stressful, for me. Things took a little more time than I expected and I’m tired.” None of which was technically a lie, so to speak. And with any luck, his trine would read into the Iacon bit and his past with the city’s science academy and realize he didn’t want to talk about it, and they’d leave him alone to ponder how it would have felt to recharge next to Skyfire on an actual berth. 

Skywarp leaned in, flicking his wings so the metal chimed against Starscream’s armor. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to, not as long as the job is done.” What Skywarp didn’t know about the actual completion status of the job wouldn’t hurt him. And if it threatened to, Starscream would deal with it. Nobody else needed to get involved. 

Ruining Starscream’s flawless plans to guilt-trip his trine into backing off, Skywarp continued, “But come on, you know the best way to destress from grounder cities is to go out and have some real fun! There’s this great bar that just opened up here, top floor of that new skyscraper at the edge of the city.” He tipped his head to gently knock his helm against Starscream’s in a friendly nudge, grinning. “Super exclusive, hard to get into, unless, you know. You can teleport.” 

“Also, we weren’t kidding about the fluff stuck on your wing,” Thundercracker added. He skimmed his hand over the back of Starscream’s wing, stopping to rub over the tip of it. “You’re not normally… so casual about that.” 

“That’s TC-speak for you’re gross, take a shower,” Skywarp said in an exaggerated whisper. In a more normal volume, he continued, “Seriously, we need the sofa back. Also, you know, we love you and we’re worried about you and all that.” 

Starscream sighed, allowing himself to relax the slightest amount. “If I go out tonight, will you leave me alone?” 

“We’ll consider it,” Skywarp hedged. “‘Alone’ is a strong word.” 

“Yeah, we wouldn’t be good trinemates if we weren’t bothering you at least a little,” Thundercracker said. He poked one of Starscream’s ailerons, which meant he absolutely deserved the wingtip-to-the-optic that immediately followed. “Ow, Starscream!” He shoved Starscream into Skywarp, who wasted no time in wrapping his arms around his trinemate and hooking his chin over one shoulder.

“So will you go?” he asked.

“Not to Skywarp’s bar. I don’t feel like getting thrown out of anywhere by a bouncer tonight.” 

“Spoilsport.” 

“I will get myself cleaned up and _I_ will pick a bar to go to, and I’ll go by myself.” He picked himself up off of Skywarp, glancing down to take in his own frame. Perhaps he had allowed himself to fall behind on his armor-care routine. Even if he was just going out to satisfy his meddling trine, that was no excuse to go out without a full polish, at _least._

* * *

Starscream strolled into the bar: Third Rail, a middling business on the very outskirts of Vos. It was a place he frequented on occasion, when he needed to feel better about himself without standing out too dangerously. The usual bartender’s excellent rendition of an Old-Fashioned engex didn’t hurt, either. 

Third Rail was busy already, filled with a more even mix of seekers, other flight frames, and grounders than one might find elsewhere on Cybertron. At a table just to the left of the door, a whole trine was flirting with a big shuttle femme. Even though the shuttle’s deep purple paint job ensured she looked nothing like Skyfire, Starscream had to look away the moment she grinned at the seekers. 

He needed to move on. Let a few mechs who knew Starscream was out of their league try and come on to him, spend some quality time with the least-objectionable one of them. It would be the simplest way to excise the melancholy that had begun to hang off of him. 

The idea made him grimace slightly. Perhaps he didn’t need to let anyone take him home. Surely it would be enough to drown his spark in engex. 

Starscream slid into the first empty seat at the bar counter. The bartender on duty rolled over just long enough to take his order before returning to their other drink preparations. He picked at a gouge in the metal counter, fitting his claw into the cracks and folds of it. 

When he heard the voice, he thought it was a dream. It was lifted straight from his memories, after all. 

_They’d spent all day in the awful short-term rental Starscream was staying in until, he had thought, his acceptance into Iacon’s science academy was certain and he could find somewhere more permanent. Extended study sessions and practice tests had left both mechs satisfied with their efforts but exhausted down to every strut and wire. Neither of them was relaxed enough to actually recharge, of course, and somehow this had brought both of them to the nearest bar to Starscream’s place._

_Somehow they’d talked each other into ordering their drinks based on name alone, rather than by any flavors therein. Something about an experiment, figuring out which ingredients were more likely to be included in drinks with names that held specific sounds._

_It had been a long study session. Starscream had sort of given up on anything making sense after that._

_He’d hated his order, the ‘Engex Fizz,’ which had ended up involving far more sulphur than he preferred. Skyfire, though, had ordered a Cosmos, and had loved the pale pink drink._

That bar had been even more of a dump than the one Starscream was currently in, but Skyfire’s drink order and voice were still the same. Starscream shifted to catch a glimpse and make sure it was Skyfire. The moment he saw enough of the substantial white armor, just a moment’s look at Skyfire’s face—he didn’t look _happy,_ not that that should matter to Starscream—Starscream turned so his back was towards the sound. 

He could hardly believe he’d forgotten enough of their past to not recognize the shuttle immediately when he’d been assigned him as a target, but, well… Once he’d been rejected from the academy, Starscream had done his best to forget a lot of the prep involved. 

The bartender slid Starscream’s drink in front of him, swiping the creds he’d already set down on the tabletop as payment. Starscream stirred it with one claw, trying to talk himself out of getting another look at Skyfire. Bringing up a past he thought he’d left behind him for the second time. (The second _failure,_ subconscious code whispered to him like malware. _Couldn’t hack it with the genius bots in the Academy and can’t even take out a sleeping shuttle.)_

At least, he reflected, as two big bomber jets with purple insignias shoved each other and laughed raucously at a table just off the bar, he hadn’t joined the burgeoning Decepticon forces upon his rejection. Primus knew that fight was not going to go well for them or whomever they ended up fighting. 

Not that he _wasn’t_ aligned with them. Just not officially. 

Starscream had known better than to accept the job offer from the one ostensibly in charge, the big gladiator, after the two of them could hardly go a sentence without snarling at each other in initial discussions. At the time, he could hardly tell if he wanted to kill the mech or kiss him, and he’d still been so wrapped up in his rejection from the academy and that he’d left Iacon without contacting Skyfire… He couldn’t afford getting entangled with anything else. 

Unfortunately, emotional intelligence didn’t pay the bills, and when the quietly intimidating mech known as Soundwave who was always at the gladiator’s side offered Starscream a one-time assassination job, it had been almost easy to accept it. One of Vos’s unbearable royal cousins, someone happy to smile and flutter their wings while everyone else suffered for their excess. 

Not that Starscream couldn’t appreciate some excess, every once in a while. 

Still. Offlining them had been laughably easy. It turned out that the Decepticons, surprise surprise, were a group that made its fair share of enemies the Cons couldn’t afford people realizing they’d gotten rid of themselves. Even bots on the “opposing” side needed some subtle kills made on occasion. 

Sooner rather than later, Starscream and his trine had found themselves a fairly steady supply of targets from Soundwave and other mechs, no matter which side the clients or targets were on. 

And now he was here. A few metrons from the mech Skywarp and, by proxy, Starscream had been contracted to kill. 

Listening to some random bot flirt with him. 

“Your drink looks delicious—would you like another?” A smooth voice filtered through Starscream’s audials, past the noise of the rest of Third Rail. 

Skyfire’s voice followed, steady and firm. “No thank you, I’m… not looking for company tonight. The offer is appreciated.” 

“Oh no, I didn’t mean to assume! I’m not exactly looking for anything either, just a friendly face, you know? You don’t mind if I just sit, right? I promise, I’m not here to bother you.” 

Something about her voice sounded familiar. The cutting edge to even the friendly words, maybe. Like there were buzzsaws running underneath the hum of her engine. 

Starscream risked one more look back at Skyfire and his new companion, and his spark twinged.

Nightbird. 

Those who made their livelihood ending lives did their best to remain unknown. Still, there were only so many high-profile jobs to go around for assassins, and eventually one tended to at least hear rumors about the competition. 

Starscream had started more than a few of the rumors around himself. 

Nightbird’s rumors were subtle, but sharp as the blades tucked into every pocket of her subspace. She was deadly as any sharpshooter, a variety of tools lending her a terrifying creativity to her kills.

There was only one reason she’d be talking to Skyfire. 

“I mean,” Skyfire hedged, “I can’t promise I’d be great company.” 

“That’s fine, me neither. It’s been a deca-orn, you know? Maybe we can commiserate over our next round. On me!” 

Starscream couldn’t let this happen. His own internal database of poisons presented him with at least three concoctions Nightbird could slip into Skyfire’s drink that would let her get far away long before Skyfire would even realize anything was wrong. 

And by then it would be too late to do anything. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> keep an eye out for another chapter (maybe two :O) today! as always, i'd love to hear if there was anything specific you enjoyed in this chapter! :D


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> strap in everybody this sure is a chapter :3

Starscream had to stop her from buying Skyfire a drink. He couldn’t blow his own cover; he wanted to come back to this bar at some point. All he needed was a distraction. 

Almost on impulse, he got out of his chair. With each step he took, the movements became easier, more natural, until he was sliding into Skyfire’s lap and looping one arm over the shuttle’s shoulders like he belonged there. Starscream shot a fierce glare at Nightbird and leaned in as if to plant a possessive kiss on the jaw of his partner. 

While they were so close, Starscream whispered as subtly as he could, cursing himself for deleting Skyfire’s old comms line from his records. “She’s dangerous, promise I’ll explain later,  _ please _ play along.” 

Starscream was counting on Skyfire knowing Starscream was not the type of mech to say  _ please _ unless things were truly, truly desperate. 

Upon pulling away, he giggled flirtatiously, letting his wing brush Skyfire’s as though it was something they did every day. He eyed Nightbird, allowing all the condescension he’d ever felt to seep into his voice. “Is this mech bothering you, sweetspark?” It was obvious when she recognized Starscream, stiffening and glaring at him just as venomously. He ignored the daggers shooting from her eyes and leaned in to faux-whisper to Skyfire. “I thought you said you’d wait for me…” 

Skyfire didn’t hesitate to wrap an arm around Starscream’s waist, thank Primus. “I meant to, I just didn’t want to be rude to anyone.” He leaned in as well, pressing his forehead to Starscream’s in a brief embrace. 

Nightbird casually took out a short blade and began to use it to clean the seams in her vambrace armor. Her optics, smoldering gold, never left Starscream’s. “You know,” she murmured, “if  _ someone _ had mentioned he was  _ taken, _ this confusion might not have happened.” 

A little awkwardly, Skyfire laughed. “I mean… I don’t know what to tell you.” 

Starscream flexed his free hand, extending claws just as wickedly sharp as Nightbird’s dagger, and waved at her dismissively. “It seems you understand now! Skyfire’s already been  _ taken, _ so there’s no need for anyone else to get involved.” 

Nightbird wasn’t stupid. With a long-suffering sigh, she returned the dagger to its hidden scabbard. “Great. I’ll just… move along then.” She stood, casting one last look at Skyfire and Starscream. Her optic lenses focused on Starscream, cold and clear. “Don’t take too long to make a move, though. Not everyone is as understanding as I am, and you might lose your pretty prize here.” 

Skyfire sat up, wings flaring with indigance. Starscream pinched the inside of his collar faring until he relaxed a bit. Once he was sure Skyfire wasn’t going to irritate the dangerous assassin—well, the  _ other _ dangerous assassin—any further, Starscream smiled at Nightbird. Or at least he bared his teeth at her. Close enough. “Sounds  _ just _ great. Don’t let the door hit you on your way out!” 

The moment she was out of the bar, Starscream slipped off of Skyfire’s lap. “I said I’d explain.” 

Skyfire folded his arms across his chest, face plates schooling themselves into a neutral expression. “So explain.” 

Around the two planes, Third Rail hummed with bots of all shapes and sizes. Any one of them could be less overcharged than they seem, more than capable of recording and reporting secrets. Starscream shook his head. “Not here. Can we go back to your place?” His eyrie would be closer, but it’s not like Skyfire would know that, and… well, mainly Starscream didn’t want to try and explain to his trine why his target was in their place and why they couldn’t, under any circumstances, try to offline him. 

“That depends,” Skyfire said. “Are you going to be gone tomorrow morning again?”

“No!” Starscream blurted before he could stop his traitorous programming. He covered it up with a scoff, ignoring the way every line of code in his processors wanted him to promise no, he wouldn’t do that again, and in fact he wanted to spend every night next to Skyfire for the rest of his functioning. “No, someone has keep your aft alive.” 

“Starscream.” Skyfire fixed him with an unimpressed look. “I’m not going to offline in the night. What are you talking about?” 

Starscream’s wings were twitching behind him, unable to keep still. He shook his head again, more emphatically. “Look, just—” his engine thrummed in frustration, and the bartender gave him a nasty look. Seeker engine sounds were shrill at the best of times, and Starscream was rarely in ‘the best of times.’ Turbines shrieking did not make a pleasant bar environment, for employees or customers. “Can we  _ please _ argue about this in your apartment?” 

Skyfire took in a deep vent before he stood. “Fine. But you’d better have a good explanation.” 

* * *

Skyfire let both of them into his apartment, keeping a wary eye on Starscream. 

The moment the door was locked behind them, he turned to face his companion. “Alright. It’s explanation time. Why  _ did _ you show up again, after all that time? Is this a game to you, is that why you left—” Skyfire cut himself off so abruptly his vocalizer clicked. “I mean, what was wrong with the femme in the bar? Why was she so dangerous?” 

Starscream leaned back against the wall, staring up at the ceiling. “I… was in town on business. Similar business to Nightbird’s—that was her name.” 

“Starscream.” 

“I’m not done, give me a klik, Primus.” He didn’t let his wings droop as he continued, resolutely keeping them casually level. It didn’t matter what Skyfire thought of him and his profession. Not at all. “I’m… You could call me a mercenary. A very specialized mercenary.” He risked a glance at Skyfire, who was looking back at him. There was concern in those optics, he thought, but it had been a long time since he’d been able to read Skyfire. 

“I’m an assassin,” Starscream admitted fully after a klik of silence. “And so was Nightbird. She was going to try and poison you.”

Skyfire looked down, focusing on his hands as he thought. 

Starscream wasn’t tensing up his whole frame in preparation of Skyfire’s likely judgment or anything. He was tense because of some other, completely unrelated reason. 

When Skyfire met his gaze again, there was nothing on his face but concern. “Hold on, when did this happen? Was this… after we weren’t accepted? Or were you always an assassin?” 

Starscream blinked, caught off guard by the innocuous question. “It was after. I didn’t join the Decepticons, but they had some unofficial jobs for me, and I needed the creds.” 

Skyfire nodded, optics unfocused while he considered the new information. “The Decepticons,  _ Primus,  _ Star, they’re dangerous.” 

Starscream just laughed and held out his hands, extending both sets of talons. “Like I couldn’t handle myself.” He mimed lashing out with them, and Skyfire flinched back.

Which. Starscream couldn’t blame him.

“So you were in town on business and just happened to be in the alleyway while I was getting mugged? Was he another assassin?” 

“No, he was just in the way.” Starscream flicked his wings up and down in a shrug. “Wrong place, wrong time.” 

“Wait, in the way of what?” 

Starscream froze. “Of me… getting through the alleyway…” 

“Were you waiting there to kill me?!” Skyfire took a few steps back until he ran up against the back of his couch. 

“I didn’t kill you! I saved your life!” Starscream could feel the staticky shriek of his own vocalizers hitting their limits as well as hear it, friction rubbing the delicate components raw. 

Skyfire clutched at the couch behind him, as if it was a rock of stability and not a half-scrapped hunk of silicone. “That wasn’t a no!” He was venting quickly, condensation gathering around his auxiliary and primary vents in the cold air of his apartment. “Primus, you just walked into my apartment planning to kill me!” 

“But I didn’t kill you!” Starscream insisted.

“You took the slagging job  _ intending to!”  _ Skyfire shook his head, forcing himself to let go of the couch. In the gaps of his armor, components shuddered and shifted as though Skyfire was resisting the urge to transform and simply fly away. 

Fleeing had never been his style, though. That was all Starscream. 

The shuttle slowed his vents, drawing in a long breath and then letting it out evenly. His plating settled back into place, but he didn’t look back at Starscream. He spoke, still gazing off to one side. “Starscream, I thought… I had thought we were friends, at least. Did I really mean that little to you?” 

Starscream wanted to sit down on the floor. He steeled himself, pretended that his armor was fluffed up with self-righteousness rather than anxiety. “They didn’t exactly give me a notated copy of our history! They didn’t even give me your name, just an address and a photo.” He wasn’t pleading, he wasn’t begging, and most of all he was not  _ hoping. _ He was just stating the facts. “I didn’t even realize it was you until you said my name! And then I couldn’t—” 

Two memories played overtop of one another, like a glitching holovid. A much younger Skyfire, lit by those awful fluorescent library lights, smiling at Starscream even though he’d never met him before, overlapped with the tired Skyfire of a few days ago, shadowed in the alleyway and looking at Starscream like it was still the first time. 

_ And then I couldn’t kill you. Couldn’t let go of you, either. _

And here, and now, Skyfire was looking at him again. “Starscream,” Skyfire said, and it was nothing like the first time. He didn’t sound hopeful or surprised, just exhausted and resigned. “I—”

“You don’t have to say anything,” Starscream cut him off. He stalked towards the balcony door before Skyfire could stop him, waving dismissively as though none of the conversation even mattered. “I’ve explained, you get it, you don’t have to try and make yourself feel better by asking more irrelevant questions.” If he kept talking, he didn’t have to keep thinking about the weary pale blue of Skyfire’s optics as he passed him where he stood by the couch. 

Skyfire didn’t flinch again when Starscream passed him, but he didn’t reach out for him, either. 

Starscream was out of the door before Skyfire could say anything but “Starscream!” and by then he’d already transformed. Frag the hour, he was  _ out of here. _

He’d hardly been flying for a breem when he remembered—Nightbird had said  _ Not everyone is as understanding as I am.  _ Not everyone. Slag. Other assassins might be after Skyfire, and Starscream couldn’t just leave him alone, even if he didn’t ever want to see Starscream again. 

Starscream wheeled around, making it back to Skyfire’s in half the time. He perched, ironically, in the same spot he’d used when staking out the balcony that first night. It shouldn’t be too hard to take out whatever bounty hunter tried his hand next, and then between Nightbird’s knowledge that Skyfire was Starscream’s case and the death of the next mech who might try to take him from Starscream, Skyfire should be left alone. 

Simple. Easy. 

All Starscream had to do was wait. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fake dating is my personal kryptonite and i couldn't RESIST sneaking a little bit of it in here!!   
> so, that aside, how are we feeling?


	6. Chapter 6

He sat there until dawn. Thin rays of light stretched over the horizon, gilding the skyscraper roofs without giving much warmth to the layers below. During the night, Starscream had slipped into a half-stasis, sensors trained on any suspicious activity around Skyfire’s apartment but all other functions locked. 

A querying feeling crept into the trine bond, moments before Starscream’s comm went off. That was right, he hadn’t gone home after his bar visit from last night. He answered the call.

Without waiting for his greeting, Skywarp asked,  _ “So, who’d you go home with, Screamer?”  _

“Don’t call me that,” Starscream grumbled. “And… no one. Technically.” 

_ “Technically?” _ Thundercracker was more muffled. Starscream could imagine him, leaning over to try and be heard through Skywarp’s microphone. 

“Well, I didn’t kill that bot from your job, Skywarp,” Starscream admitted, in lieu of explaining exactly the events of the previous night. 

_ “What!? I’m forwarding any calls I get about it to you now! You owe me for every time I’ve had to answer that client,”  _ Skywarp complained. A soft thump sounded like he’d just flopped onto their couch in dramatic discontent.

“I don’t owe you anything! You’re the one who was supposed to take him out in the first place!” 

_ “Starscream, where are you right now?”  _ Thundercracker asked, interrupting their argument. 

“That’s not important,” Starscream hedged. “But hypothetically, I might be here for a little longer than I had planned. I promise, I’m fine, everything is under control.” 

There was an awfully judgmental silence from across the call. 

“Really!” he insisted. “Look, I just… I need to clear up some stuff from the Academy, okay? I’ll tell you both about it when I get home. It might be a few days, but I’ll explain everything.” 

_ “Alright,”  _ Skywarp said.  _ “We’ll see you later, then. Love you!”  _

“Love you too.”

Thundercracker spoke up again.  _ “Be safe, okay? You know you can always come to us for help.”  _

In the chilly dawn air, the warmth of his trinemates’ care was more comforting than Starscream wanted to admit. “I will,” he promised. 

A soft warning blipped in his vision, and Starscream shuttered his optics for a klik to clear and focus them. There was movement on the wall outside Skyfire’s apartment, slow but certain. 

“I have to go, I’ll call you when I’m on my way home, okay?” He hung up without waiting for an answer. 

There was a fragging mech climbing the walls of the apartment! Starscream didn’t recognize this one, but there was no way he was up to anything good. 

Either his paint job was an incredibly coincidental shade of brownish gray, or there was some sort of camouflage mod enabled. It made it difficult to keep optics focused on him, but Starscream didn’t let up for a moment as he gathered himself together, poised to strike. 

He leapt forward, an extra boost from his thruster pedes more than enough to clear the distance, and tackled the strange mech right through Skyfire’s window. Safety glass shattered into tiny cubes everywhere and the would-be assassin let out a strangled grunt. There was a cold metal rod folded between the two of them, pointing up between their frames. 

A gun. 

One undoubtedly far more suited to this attacker than the mugger’s had been. 

Starscream reached between them, uncaring of the way his claws gouged into the other assassin’s frame or his own. A white-hot pain lanced along his left wing because  _ slag,  _ he hadn’t kept a good enough track of the attacker’s other limb and they’d pulled a knife on him. 

“What the pit is happening here?” Skyfire yelled. Starscream couldn’t spare him a glance, too busy trying to wrest the gun away from the other mech. They snarled in his face and Starscream didn’t bother snarling back. It was far more effective to sink his denta into the mech’s shoulder vent until he tasted energon. 

His assailant cried out and shoved him back with both hands, forgetting to keep one locked to the barrel of their gun. Starscream yanked it free and let himself tumble backwards, rolling back onto his feet and standing with the grace of a cybercat. He wasted no time in aiming the gun at its owner, and this time he  _ did  _ snarl at them.

“Who sent you?” 

The mech shrugged, sullen and wary. He clutched his knife tight as he and Starscream circled one another; neither willing to let their guard down. “Who sent  _ you?”  _ he growled. 

“I asked you first!” Starscream snapped. Skyfire was moving in the corner of his vision, but he couldn’t afford to focus on the other mech. He was smart, he’d realize Starscream was trying to help. 

“I asked you second!” the other assassin insisted. He didn’t take his optics off of Starscream either, laser-focused on the fight directly in front of him. As Skyfire grabbed his arms from behind, he probably was wishing he’d paid a little bit more attention to his surroundings. 

Sometimes Starscream forgot just how  _ big _ Skyfire was. 

Now was not one of those times. With almost laughable ease, he held the mech’s wrists behind their back with one hand and grabbed their knife, sliding it across the floor to Starscream. 

“I… I’m not sure what we do now,” Skyfire admitted after a klik of silence. 

Starscream allowed himself to relax, taking in a deep vent and dialing down the sensitivity of his visual and audio receptors. “We kill him.” 

“What? No!” 

“He was going to kill you!” Starscream protested. 

“That doesn’t make it okay for us to kill him. Everyone deserves a second chance.” Skyfire kept the mech’s arms pinned with one hand while they spoke, using his other to gesture emphatically. Starscream was not at all into it, and was definitely not having to dismiss requests to initiate data-sharing interface protocols.

He was completely focused on the task at hand. “Look, Skyfire, what are you going to do? Release him so he tries to kill you again? We should at least torture him a little, make sure he doesn’t think to try anything.” 

Skyfire blanched, wings folding down till they were almost parallel with the rest of his frame. “What?! No! No torture!” 

“I would also prefer no torture,” the mech mumbled. 

Starscream hissed at him. “You don’t get to have an opinion!” He sighed. “Fine, fine, no torture. But—” and here Starscream stalked closer to the mech, taking a perhaps self-congratulatory moment to watch the way his optics went pale with fear the closer Starscream got. “Remember how easily we took you out. Remember how you didn’t even make it through the entrance before you were in our sights.” He held the mech’s gun in front of him, almost delicately in the tips of his fingers. 

With the barest hint of pressure, his claws slid out, piercing deep into the casing. It was hardly a klik before the gun was a ruined hunk of metal, and Starscream smirked, dropping it on the floor in front of the mech. “I don’t think anyone needs to try and take on this particular job again.” 

“Yep, yep, agreed, I’ll pass it on,” the mech babbled. He twisted his head back to look at Skyfire, pleading. “Can I go now?” 

Skyfire looked like he was trying to keep a disapproving stare on his face, but a little smile was tugging at the edges of his optics. “Maybe look into another career,” he said, and let the mech go. He picked up the remains of his gun and bolted for the window, practically throwing himself out onto the side of the building to climb back down. 

Starscream grinned at Skyfire, who couldn’t seem to stop himself from smiling back, even if it was a little rueful. “You didn’t say no terrifying him.” 

“You’re right, I didn’t. My mistake, I’ll be more specific next time,” Skyfire said dryly. He shook himself, optics focusing on Starscream. His smile softened, to something almost… gentle. “You came back.” 

“I—no, I didn’t,” Starscream said, despite the fact that he was standing in Skyfire’s apartment at that very moment. “I was just—” he searched for a reason to be here, one that didn’t involve  _ I needed to make sure you’re safe.  _ “—trying to kill you again?” he tried, and Starscream considered himself, on the whole, an excellent liar. 

So he knew when a lie was completely unbelievable. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "i didn't stay here to save your life i'm just trying to kill you again" is possibly my second favorite line in this fic, second only to one in the next chapter ;)


	7. Chapter 7

Skyfire reached out and Starscream turned away, shrugging off his hand. “I just wanted to make sure you didn’t get offlined in the night. For old times’ sake.” 

“Starscream.” 

Starscream twitched his wings, but gave no other indication he’d heard Skyfire. 

“Star.” 

That nickname didn’t do anything to Starscream’s spark. He was a cold, calculating killer. The reason he wasn’t turning around was  _ not  _ that one glance at Skyfire’s big, sad optics might make him want to stay. It was something else. Something sensible. 

“I just wanted to say thank you, and…” 

He could feel Skyfire behind him, tall and warm, even though the shuttle wasn’t touching him. He should move further away. 

“If you want to leave, you can. I promise, I’m not completely incapable.” 

“I know,” Starscream muttered. 

“So—” Skyfire’s vents caught on the word, and Starscream risked a quick look over his shoulder. 

Oh.

There was coolant welling on the corners of Skyfire’s optics for a split klik, before he scrubbed at his face with one hand and blinked the extra liquid away. He gave Starscream a weak smile. 

Starscream’s spark flickered.  _ Oh. _

Skyfire vented in and out and kept talking, regardless of Starscream’s crisis of feelings. “It’s fine, it’s fine. It’s just been a weird few days, you know? What I’m trying to say is that don’t feel like you have to stick around for old times’ sake or anything. I don’t want you to feel trapped by me or like you have to protect me.” 

“I want to,” Starscream’s vocalizer was saying, without his permission to do so. He’d turned at some point to face Skyfire, close enough to feel one another’s ex-vents. “Skyfire, scrap, I  _ want  _ to protect you!” 

The half-sparked laugh that bubbled out of Skyfire made Starscream’s spark recoil. Skyfire should never have cause to sound like that, least of all because of Starscream. “It’s nice of you to say that Starscream, I appreciate it.” 

Starscream bared his teeth in frustration. “I mean it! I’m not going to let anything happen to you!” 

“Okay, it’s not funny anymore.” Skyfire took a step back, shaking his helm. 

“It was never funny in the first place, you aft!” Starscream rocked back and forth on his heels for a second, caught between the desire to give Skyfire space and the desire to be closer to him. “You mean a lot to me!” 

“Oh, really? I didn’t seem to mean anything to you a few days ago!” 

Starscream threw his hands in the air, shouting, “Primus, I’m sorry for  _ not killing you! _ Are you still mad about that?!” 

Skyfire’s wings were held high, trembling with tension. “That’s—I mean,  _ yes, _ Starscream, I am still mad you tried to kill me! But that’s not even the point! You didn’t—” his vents caught again, a hitching undertone to his glyphs as he kept going, quieter. “—you didn’t remember me. Not at all.” 

Starscream’s turbines were a shrieking accompaniment to his voice, and he didn’t have a spare ounce of processing power to devote to stopping them. “Agh! The only reason I didn’t remember is that I forced myself to forget. It hurt too much to think about any of it, because, you idiot, I loved you!” 

The two mechs froze, optics locked on one another. 

“... Loved?” Skyfire ventured, after a long silence. 

Starscream couldn’t look away. “Loved. Love. Whatever tense you care to put it in. I was going to tell you after we were accepted into the academy, but then… you know. And then I couldn’t stand the idea of facing you like that, like a  _ failure.”  _ And now there was coolant welling in his optics, which was cool and fine and great. Absolutely how Starscream had wanted this to go. 

“Oh, Starscream—” 

“Don’t,” Starscream snapped. “Don’t ‘Oh, Starscream’ me, I don’t need your pity.” Every instinct in his frame was telling him to take flight, to hightail it back to Vos and never think about any facet of this affair ever again. 

But then Skyfire’s hand was on his shoulder, warm and solid without being suffocating. Starscream could have easily moved away or brushed it off, but he didn’t. Skyfire was still looking at him, an unnameable emotion in those blue optics. 

“Would you let me explain my feelings for a breem without cutting me off?” he asked. 

Starscream huffed. “I suppose.” 

“I promise, Star, pity is the last thing I feel for you. You’re not a failure, whether or not you made it into some awful, stuck-up academy. You’d have hated it here. But… I wish you were here anyway. I’ve always wished that.” Skyfire caressed the side of Starscream’s face slowly, giving him plenty of time to say no or back off. Instead, Starscream leaned into the touch. His optics shuttered closed. “Starscream, I loved— _ love _ you too. Can I kiss you?” 

Starscream was already jumping up, almost clocking his helm on the ceiling in his rush to get his face level with Skyfire’s. Their lips met hastily, crashing into one another. 

Skyfire wrapped his arms around Starscream, steadying him and keeping them at the same level. “There’s no rush, I’m not going to leave.” 

Starscream kissed him again, slow and heated. “I know,” he breathed when they paused. “I just wanted to kiss you.” 

At that, Skyfire kissed him again. He kept grinning into the kiss, and Starscream would have scolded him for it except he was having the same problem. He pulled away to press his face into the side of Skyfire’s neck, leaving more kisses on the cables there. 

“Frag the academy,” he got out in between kisses. “Come to Vos with me. You can stay with my trine and I in our eyrie.” 

They were close enough that Starscream could feel, in minute detail, the way Skyfire tensed at that. 

“Or don’t!” he blurted. “It’s not a big deal, it’s nothing.” He shoved at Skyfire’s chest, trying to move away. 

Skyfire loosened his arms slightly, but didn’t set Starscream down. “No, Star, I promise, I’d love to come with you.” His face was creased with concern. “It’s just… I’m not even technically an official student there. I’m studying under one of their professors, Fluxbyte. He took me on, sponsored me as a special case after I didn’t get into the academy through the tests. I’d hate to disappoint him.” 

That was right, they had  _ both _ failed. Then the rest of what Skyfire had said caught up to Starscream and it was his turn to tense up. “Fluxbyte? Are you sure?” 

Skyfire looked at him bemusedly. “I think I’d know his designation by now. I’ve been studying with him for a while now.” 

“It’s just…” Starscream pulled a face. “I don’t know how to say this. You don’t like him very much, do you?” 

“I mean, I wouldn’t say it like that,” Skyfire hedged. “All the professors there deserve respect.” 

“Even the ones that hire assassins to take out their sponsored student?” 

“I… what?” Skyfire sat down on the floor, taking Starscream with him. 

For lack of a better way to help, Starscream reached out to pet along the tops of Skyfire’s wings. “My client—the drop point for payment was Iacon, and the initials were FB. It makes an unfortunate amount of sense.”

Skyfire’s wings pushed up into the touch, so Starscream kept petting them as Skyfire spoke. “I guess it does… He always was a little impatient with me, pushing me to finish that equation before anything else. I didn’t think I’d done anything to deserve it—”

“—You hadn’t,” said Starscream firmly. “He was a two-bit son of a glitch, and he doesn’t deserve you as a student.” 

Skyfire smiled at him. “I knew I could count on you for the nuanced, unbiased opinion.” He smoothed his hands over the backs of Starscream’s wings before drawing his right hand back quickly. “Hold on, why is my hand wet?” 

The white armor of Skyfire’s hand was sticky-pink with… oh, that was Starscream’s energon. 

Right. He had received that cut to the wing, hadn’t he. Between the adrenaline of the fight and everything that had just happened with Skyfire, the ache had receded to a dull twinge. The moment he thought of it, every sensor in the area started blaring alarms at him. 

“I’m fine,” Starscream assured Skyfire. “Just a scratch.” He twisted to get a better look at the injury, and a jolt of pain shot from his wing straight to his spark before the world went dark around him. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The exchange where Starscream asks Skyfire if he's still mad at him for not killing him and Skyfire is like, you tRIED TO KILL ME yes I am STILL MAD has to be my favorite bit XD   
> Next (last, oh my god) chapter should be up later today!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we made it to the end! all aboard for chapter The Last :D

“Starscream, are you okay?” 

Starscream waved an arm blearily, hitting something metal and solid with a clang. It moved under his weak grasp, and it took a breem or so before he realized it was Skyfire. The movement was him kneeling on the floor in front of Starscream. He was sideways, for some reason, except, no—no, Starscream was just lying on his side. On Skyfire’s berth. 

His optics slowly focused on Skyfire, several shuttles coalescing into one clear image. “Skyfire?” 

“Star? How do you feel?” Skyfire’s face was creased in worry, and Starscream smiled at him helplessly. Skyfire  _ cared _ about him. Starscream couldn’t shake the smile from his face at the thought. Skyfire’s sappiness must have been contagious. 

Starscream nodded slowly. “I don’t feel as though I’m bleeding out, which is nice.” He went to shrug and winced as his injured wing throbbed at the movement. His other wing caught on something soft and warm, and Starscream realized he’d been gently wrapped in several berth coverings.

“There was an emergency soldering kit in my closet. Still, you should probably go to the hospital. I couldn’t exactly take a first aid course at the Academy, those are all medic-class only.” Skyfire’s wings flicked briefly in irritation. “It’s a solid patch job, but it’s going to leave a scar.” 

Starscream pulled a face. “I’m sure it will hold me back to Vos. I know mechs there who’ll do a far better job with wings than any medic here.” He pet down the back of Skyfire’s helm, pulling him in for a quick kiss on impulse. And maybe it was a little off-center of Skyfire’s lips from Starscream still lying on his side. He and Skyfire were still beaming at each other when they withdrew, so he was certain it was perfect regardless. “And every word you say about the Academy is further evidence you should come with me to Vos.” 

“I…” Skyfire sat back for a moment, considering the apartment around him. Starscream followed his gaze, making his own judgments of the place. He hadn’t been in it for very long, but he remembered his initial thoughts. Everything from the floor to the furnishings had seemed cheap, confining—like it had never been meant for someone like Skyfire. Starscream stood by that. Skyfire deserved better than a slagheap like this. 

He would let Skyfire come to his own conclusions, but Starscream knew what he thought. 

“It’s only…” Skyfire shook his head and sighed, his whole frame curving like a parenthesis over Starscream. He pressed his forehead to Starscream’s shoulder and was quiet for a klik longer. “Starscream, I want to come with you, I do! More than anything. But I don’t want to give up on being a scientist, either.” 

Starscream sat up, pulling Skyfire with him. He held Skyfire as close as he could. “You don’t have to. I… I miss doing our experiments together. Learning about the world around us, the worlds beyond… That was amazing. If you come to Vos with me, we can do that again. Slag the Academy and their certifications. We don’t need anyone’s approval.” 

Skyfire looked up at him, and even after everything he’d learned about Starscream recently, there was still trust there.

This time, Starscream was going to be worthy of that trust.

“Then yes,” Skyfire said. He smiled at Starscream, bright as any star. “Yes, Starscream, yes!” He leaned in to kiss Starscream, who reciprocated by scooting over and tugging at Skyfire until he climbed up onto the berth next to Starscream. 

* * *

Starscream lay over Skyfire’s frame. Both their engines purred contentedly, Skyfire’s bass rumble almost harmonizing with the higher pitch of Starscream’s turbines. Skyfire’s cable still lay lewdly unspooled across his torso, Starscream’s draped atop it. Their size difference was plain like this. Looking at the thick white metal of Skyfire’s jack, it was almost difficult to believe they hadn’t needed an adapter for Starscream’s port. 

His cooling fans began to spin up again, slowly but steadily. Perhaps he could tempt Skyfire into another round…

Rudely interrupting his afterglow, Starscream’s comm began to ping him for an incoming call from a blocked number. There were only two reasons a blocked caller would come through to this frequency: a new client or a current one. 

Starscream had a feeling as to which this was. He sat up, tugging Skyfire with him, and answered the comm. 

_ “What did you do to Axer? The blasted glitch swore he’d get the job done, and now he’s quit the sector without so much as a by-your-leave!”  _

“Oh, has he? What a shame, I really wanted to talk to him more,” Starscream said, inspecting his talons casually. The paint on them had been scuffed and scratched by his prior  _ talk _ with the other assassin. 

_ “And don’t you forget, I paid you to offline that overclocked shuttle ages ago! Why isn’t the job done?”  _

“What a good question. Why don’t you ask him?” Starscream muted the communication stream for a moment. “Skyfire, it appears I have a  _ valued customer _ of mine on the line, and he has a special interest in you. Is there anything you’d like to say to him?” He put the call on speaker, to the sounds of Professor Fluxbyte sputtering in the background. 

“Good afternoon, professor,” Skyfire said, sounding far calmer than Starscream would have in his position. “I’m sorry I can’t meet with you in person—well, no, considering that you tried to have me killed, I’m really not. I just wanted to let you know that I formally withdraw from your sponsorship, on the grounds that, murder attempts aside, you never treated me fairly as a student and I just don’t think that’s a good academic environment for me.” 

_ “I—!”  _ The professor foundered for a moment but plowed on.  _ “Look, the board never would have accepted your work as coming from a shuttle, regardless of my instructions! If you wanted to make a difference, it would have had to be published under my name, for the good of the academy. And I simply couldn’t risk you taking an issue with that, you know? Nothing personal, really.”  _

Skyfire laughed, low and sad. Starscream allowed himself a brief fantasy of pulling Fluxbyte’s spark chamber out and stomping on it. “Professor. Listen to yourself for one moment. I know even you don’t believe the slag you’re saying. Besides, I read your dissertation. And I read Smokechaser’s, too.” 

Static crackled over the comm line.  _ “I’m… I’m sorry, I don’t know that name.”  _

Starscream didn’t know it either, but he got the feeling Skyfire was going to tell them both. There was determination in the set of his face and the low burn of his optics. 

“Oh, don’t you remember? The very first flight frame accepted into the academy, the little helicopter? He was researching safer fuels for rescue missions into volatile areas. It was such a shame when he offlined in that tragic accident before he could publish anything. Wasn’t your dissertation written around that time? Could you remind me what it was about, I  _ know _ it was fuel-related but I can’t quite put my processor to it.” 

The professor rebooted his vocalizers audibly.  _ “… You don’t have any proof.” _

“Leave us alone, Professor. Or I might have to share these documents outlining everything I found when I did some research the other night.” 

It was Starscream’s turn to laugh, but his was loud and genuine. Skyfire smiled at him. 

“I’d listen to him, if I were you, Fluxbyte. And don’t forget how easily I took out the rest of the assassins you tried to send—if you think you can sneakily send anyone else after either of us, I’d keep that in mind. You might find it hits a little closer to home than you anticipated.” 

_ “Fine, you’ve made your point!”  _ Fluxbyte snapped. 

“Good,” Skyfire said. “Now don’t call again.” He nodded to Starscream, who hung up before the professor could make any response. Skyfire immediately slumped over, resting his head on top of Starscream’s. “Primus, that was exhausting. 

Starscream wrapped his arms around Skyfire as best he could. “That was  _ amazing. _ I could listen to you take down the whole academy board like that.” 

Skyfire chuckled. “Maybe in the future. For now, all I want to do is be here with you.” 

“Mmm, I can work with that.” Starscream tipped his helm back, shamelessly looking for a kiss. Skyfire needed no further encouragement to kiss him, and shifted backwards until he was sitting with his back to the wall and could pull Starscream into his lap. 

And to think this was all Skywarp’s fault. Maybe Starscream did owe him a thank you after all. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> that's all, folks! hope you all enjoyed, especially MaxtheCyborg! keep an eye out for a possible missing scene (posted as a separate work), consisting of perhaps that smut I faded-to-black on in this chapter... anyway, i had a great time writing this and participating in this exchange, and would suggest everyone check out the other works in the skystar secret santa exchange as well!!   
> and i must give a HUMONGOUS thanks to my lovely beta, [BairdCrevan,](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadySibilance/pseuds/Baird%20Crevan) without whom this story would not be NEARLY as good or, you know, nearly as complete, lol. XD you're the best!!

**Author's Note:**

> this was a BLAST to write, cannot WAIT to keep posting >:D


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